Porsche France to show special 911 at Le Mans Classic

Porsche France parked a heavily shadowed 911 Carrera on Twitter, part of a tease for a new special edition that will debut on June 29 at 9:11 a.m. local time. June 29 is the first day of the Le Mans Classic weekend, the event that closes the Le Mans circuit again so that gentlemen drivers and their competition cars from before 1981 can do La Sarthe like the old days. All we know is that the 911 on the way is one of the country-specific specials we've seen a number of in the past couple of years, like last year's 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet America Edition limited to 115 units. This one's a collaboration between Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur and Porsche France, the 356 SL in the background of the photo unlocking that part of the mystery.

That specific aluminum-bodied coupe with race roundel #46 notched Porsche's first international racing win, taking class victory at the 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 1100-cc class. Originally a 1949 Gmund 356 from Porsche's earliest days, it got the aluminum treatment after Porsche's importer in France, Auguste Veuillet, and Le Mans' race director at the time, Charles Faroux, convinced Ferdinand Porsche to enter the race. The Germans built three rebodied racers, cutting 265 pounds from the standard steel-bodied 356 to create a car that weighed 1,499 pounds. The development team named the car Type 514 Porsche Sport for Le Mans 1951. Ferdinand himself drove chassis 356/2-063 to Le Mans, then handed it over to Veuillet and co-driver Edmond Mouche for the race. The coupe used all of its 46 horsepower from a four-cylinder boxer engine to finish 19th overall, covering 2,840.65 kilometers in 210 laps, 38 fewer laps than the Jaguar C-Type that took the overall. Porsche's class victory is said to have convinced Ferdinand to double down on racing, leading to the creation of the race-focused 550 Spyder.